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MADISON, Wis. — A judge on Tuesday barred state officials from any further implementation of a law that strips most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued an emergency injunction prohibiting enactment of the law earlier this month. But the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law anyway on Friday.

Publication is typically the last step before a law takes effect, but it’s unclear if the bureau’s action amounted to that; the law’s supporters say it did, but opponents say the secretary of state had to designate a publication date.

Sumi stopped short of issuing a declaration saying the law was not in effect during a hearing Tuesday, but said her earlier order had either been ignored or misunderstood. She said anyone who violates the new order would face sanctions.

State Department of Justice spokesman Steve Means said the agency believes the law was properly published and is in effect.

“We will continue to confer with our legal counsel and have more information about how to move forward in the near future,” Huebsch said.

The law requires most public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance. It also strips away their rights to collectively bargain for anything except wages.

PORTLAND, Maine — The president of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts sent a scathing letter Tuesday to Maine Gov. Paul LePage for removing a labor-themed mural from the Department of Labor headquarters as the status of the disputed artwork remains in limbo and its location remains a secret.

The 36-foot mural was taken down over the weekend after LePage said it was too biased in favor of organized labor and wasn’t in line with his pro-business agenda. The mural was installed in 2008 and depicts Maine’s long labor history with images of mill workers, labor strikes and child laborers among its scenes.

In a letter faxed to LePage’s office, Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquarella said she has “grave concerns” about the decision to remove the mural, which includes a depiction of 1902 Mount Holyoke graduate and former U.S. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, who grew up in Worcester, Mass. The U.S Department of Labor in Washington is housed in the Frances Perkins Building.

“I was particularly surprised to read that you were influenced by an anonymous fax comparing the 11-panel mural to North Korean political propaganda, because the act of removing images commemorating Maine’s history itself conjures thoughts of rewriting history prevalent in totalitarian regimes,” she wrote.

LePage was in Florida on Tuesday and unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said.

Labor advocates, artists and others have protested the removal of the mural, calling it an insult to Maine’s workers. It’s now in storage, but administration officials won’t say where.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Facing an extraordinary wave of popular dissent, Syrian President Bashar Assad fired his cabinet on Tuesday and promised to end widely despised emergency laws — concessions unlikely to appease protesters demanding sweeping reforms in one of the most hard-line nations in the Middle East.

The overtures, while largely symbolic, are a moment of rare compromise in the Assad family’s 40 years of iron-fisted rule. They came as the government mobilized hundreds of thousands of supporters in rallies in the capital and elsewhere, in an effort to show it has wide popular backing.

Nearly every aspect of Syrian society is monitored and controlled by the security forces, and the feared secret police crush even the smallest rumblings of opposition. Draconian laws have all but eradicated civil liberties and political freedoms.

But with the protests that erupted on March 18, thousands of Syrians appear to have broken through a barrier of fear in this tightly controlled nation of 23 million.

The protests spread to other provinces and the government launched a swift crackdown, killing more than 60 people since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch. However, the violence has eased in the past few days.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitians will have to wait at least a few more days to learn the preliminary results of their presidential election because of alleged irregularities and fraud uncovered at the vote-counting center, officials said Tuesday.

While not disclosing specifics, Gaillot Dorsinvil, the president of the Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, issued a brief statement saying officials found a “high level” of fraud and irregularities of various kinds at the tabulation center in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Dorsinvil said the discovery has prompted lawyers to adopt “more stringent verification measures,” causing a delay in counting. He did not describe the alleged problems.

The preliminary results are now expected to be released Monday, according to Dorsinvil. They were expected to be released Thursday.

Voters chose between Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, a popular musician who has never held public office, and Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and senator and longtime fixture on the political scene.

From Associated Press reports.

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